Chapter 758
Chapter 758
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 758
>Chapter Title: Breakthrough Point
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Even though Xuanyin had said earlier that he drew away some troops by feinting an attack elsewhere.
But even those left here sacrificing to the god were hard for them to deal with—they were clearly not from the Dharma Sect.
Li Huowang glanced at the position of that massive red dot on the spinning light mirror, then at the incense smoke rising all around, and decisively gripped the hilt of the spinebone sword in his hand.
"Xuanyin said that even if I order you to die, you'll do it without a word. Now's the time!"
"I don't even know what they're sacrificing to! But we must stop them! I'll charge right alongside you. Come what may, live or die, it's up to fate! Charge!"
With Li Huowang's order, these people charged without any hesitation alongside him toward the scattered red stars in the downpour, and the sounds of slaughter rang out incessantly for a moment.
With a squelch, the purple-tasseled sword in Li Huowang's hand plunged deep into the other's abdomen, while the other's sharp claws plunged into Li Huowang's abdomen as well. The two twisted at once, but the one who couldn't take it wasn't Li Huowang.
Li Huowang's mouth gaped wide, and densely packed tentacles drilled out from his throat, smothering straight onto the other's face.
Seizing the moment of the other's panic, Li Huowang twisted the sword hilt and lifted hard upward, cleaving the other clean in two.
He stomped an incense ball nearby into mush, but there was no joy on Li Huowang's face at all—because he'd only taken out one of them. There were simply too many of these chicken-foot people to count.
Amid the torrential downpour, the white smoke from the censers enveloped nearly the entire battlefield, turning the whole sacrificial platform hazy and indistinct.
Yet no matter which way it drifted, it all slowly flowed in the end into the massive statue's conical hat.
The ritual sacrifice to the god was still going on. They couldn't let it continue like this—no matter the cost, this trouble had to be dealt with!
Li Huowang immediately dragged over a corpse, ripped open its mangled abdomen, spat his daughter inside first, and then—with a whoosh—soaring flames engulfed him.
And as if sensing it from beyond the heavens, Ba Hui made Li Huowang's body crack open in countless places, the flames burrowing ceaselessly into his wounds.
"Aaah!! Ba Hui, fuck your grandfather!!" The agonized Li Huowang dropped to one knee, snarling in pain.
For some reason, the pain on his body felt even worse than before.
When he saw the flames on himself extinguished by the rain only to reignite once more, Li Huowang realized why.
He opened his mouth and licked at the falling rainwater from the sky, discovering that the water was salty.
Li Huowang immediately thought of something terrible. His heart sank to rock bottom—Xuanyin was right, it wasn't just the Yu'er God. He had to hurry!!
When Li Huowang stood again, the flames on him roared higher, the man himself like a drought fiend incinerating everything around.
Seeing the change in Li Huowang, some of the chicken-foot people with entrails dangling from meaty flaps sensed something amiss and closed in, coordinating with each other.
With various beastly cries, their bodies beastified, the throbbing red strips of cloth pumping as they swarmed Li Huowang.
Li Huowang drew a dagger and sliced open his own abdomen, tearing off his charred skin and flesh.
That ripped-off skin and flesh flew from his body and wrapped around one chicken-foot man, sizzling and scorching with endless crackles no matter how he struggled—it wouldn't let go.
Li Huowang grabbed a few stone fragments and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing down hard before spitting violently. A spray of flaming teeth mixed with blood burst from his lips.
Those burning teeth exploded in midair, instantly fanning out to cover a wide swath.
Yet just as Li Huowang was carving through the crowd, two birds appeared in the rainy skies overhead.
A human-headed bird and a horse-faced bird flapped their wings, circling repeatedly around the massive conical hat atop the statue's head. As they circled, they chanted in their hideous voices: "Out sprout~ receive calamity~ out sprout~ receive calamity~ out sprout~ receive calamity~"
With their hideous chanting, the red strips hanging from inside the statue's conical hat began to quiver faintly.
Subtle as it was, Li Huowang sensed it. His heart grew frantic, his strikes landing heavier each time.
But these chicken-foot people weren't about to stand still waiting for Li Huowang to kill them. Once they saw they couldn't win, they started keeping their distance, dodging him.
Even as Li Huowang and the others unleashed every trick they had, the white smoke in the air merely thinned a little—it didn't vanish, and the live sacrifice ritual persisted!
"Too slow! Still too slow!!" Li Huowang seized the flesh on his chest and ripped it apart. His ribs bloomed open like a flower, and the wriggling worms traded for his five viscera scattered like a goddess scattering flowers, wrapped in flames toward the others.
When Li Huowang heard the scalp-numbing sound of the statue shifting overhead, he knew that if he didn't find a way to stop it soon, they were truly finished!
Li Huowang's mind raced through everything he knew, but he realized that aside from the Cang Qiang ascending the steps, he had no turnaround point at all.
And right then, Zhao Jiabao—minus one arm—pushed through the heat waves to Li Huowang's side and pulled a sheet of paper from his robes. "Real Person Li! Here! A brocade pouch from the Bureau of Astronomy!!"
"Another damn brocade pouch? Who does he think he is?" For all his griping, Li Huowang snatched it and unfurled it, scanning the contents swiftly before the flames consumed it.
"What?! That guy never had any teleportation divine ability at all? He was just borrowing my cultivation powers?!" Li Huowang's pupils contracted sharply—he'd never expected that.
But there was no time for shock now. He kept reading.
"Li Huowang, since you still remember, I'm afraid I can't take you with me. This is called burning the boats behind you—only with no path of retreat can you unleash your full strength."
"But don't panic, there's still a way out. Since you could cultivate your way back from Qingqiu, it means your cultivation has reached great completion. If you face danger, the breakthrough lies within it. Think hard: what can you cultivate that could resolve your current predicament?"
"Something I can cultivate to resolve this predicament?" Every scene from his experiences replayed rapidly in Li Huowang's mind.
Suddenly, Li Huowang's pupils shrank to pinpoints as he realized. He pinched his temples, cultivating in agony. A white silhouette flickered in and out of visibility in the air.
Yet no matter how Li Huowang's head bulged with throbbing veins, swelling like a star elder's, that silhouette refused to fully emerge.
As all the red strips overhead began to throb, Li Huowang suddenly thought of something. He drew the spinebone sword from behind and slammed it into the ground.
He stared deathly at the spinebone sword's hilt.
As he cultivated furiously, nosebleed streamed out, blood vessels burst, and his entire head began to crack open.
In contrast, white bone rapidly grew along the edges of the spinebone. First the bones, then flesh, and finally scholar's robes.
With a snap, the white folding fan flicked open, revealing four bold characters writ large before Li Huowang's eyes.
"Born With Talent"
(End of chapter)